


Somewhere Between the Dark and Light

by Nerd_of_Camelot



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Gen, Keyblades (Kingdom Hearts), Light Angst, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Roxas & Sora & Vanitas & Ventus Are Siblings (Kingdom Hearts), Roxas Is Bad at Feelings (Kingdom Hearts), Roxas Is So Done (Kingdom Hearts), Roxas-centric (Kingdom Hearts), Unexpected Journeys, Updating tags as I go, Vanitas & Ventus Are Twins (Kingdom Hearts), this whole thing is a first draft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:33:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25289866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerd_of_Camelot/pseuds/Nerd_of_Camelot
Summary: Your past life―or that's what peoplecall it, at least―can leave you one sentence as a message in your new life. Most people have an innocuous one; advice, warnings, things of that nature.Roxas and his friends all have some pretty ominous ones... And they're about to find out why.
Relationships: Axel & Demyx & Roxas & Saïx (Kingdom Hearts), Axel & Demyx & Saïx (Kingdom Hearts), Axel & Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi & Riku & Roxas & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Roxas & Sora & Vanitas & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Roxas & Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	1. Prologue

_ Between Light and Darkness, there is Nothing. _

That was the line that Roxas’ past life had left for him in this one.

He wished he knew what the hell it meant, but he didn’t have the  _ slightest _ clue―not that he minded a whole lot. He didn’t really think about it often… Certainly not as often as Sora or Riku did.

Then again, while his was ominous and sort of off-the-wall, theirs were on another level, so he imagined they probably thought about it so often because it just continually fucked with them.

Sora, poor dude, had,  _ “The Master of Masters promises little, and gives more, but should never be trusted.” _ And Riku had,  _ “Walk not the path of the Light, nor the path of Darkness, for your salvation lies on the path of Dawn.” _

Obviously somewhat more ominous and hard to understand than Roxas’.

But that wasn’t really the point, and he was pretty sure he was only thinking about any of this because he was trying to avoid thinking about what was happening  _ right now. _ Which was fair, and a valid coping mechanism when things were going to shit, but maybe he ought to try and focus while he still had a chance to do something about this.

Now, did he have the foggiest clue how he was going to do something about this?

Abso _lutely not._

But, gods willing, he was going to fucking  _ try. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably the shortest prologue I've ever written, but it's like that sometimes.
> 
> Hopefully this'll see fairly frequent updates? But it's hard telling. It'll definitely join my main update roster once I finish off one of my other projects, lol
> 
> First real chapter _should_ be coming soon since I'm about halfway done with it at the time I'm posting this, and if I can ride the hyperfixation train long enough I'll probably be able to finish it and a couple more.
> 
> Also, while I've got you here, if you're interested, I have a [poll](https://forms.gle/iHbB1KgW1oq1eMi17) I'm running right now to see what people would like to see me write or write more of! So again if you're interested, and you've got a free second, I'd appreciate it if you could pop in and fill out a response to it!


	2. breakfast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, quick reminder in case the rest of the tags swallowed this comment: This whole thing's a first draft! It's not being re-read or touched up before being posted, for the most part, so expect the occasional error. If it's good enough once it's done I'll probably go through and do a sweep for important stuff to fix, but for now... Well.
> 
> anyways, enjoy!
> 
> This is actually my first time writing a multi-chapter KH fic since, like, _2012_ or earlier and probably the first one that I'm not obsessing over the perfection of lol

Okay, so he’d gotten a little ahead of himself.

Let him rewind.

There wasn’t really a point in his life where things  _ weren’t _ weird, but there was definitely a point where they were  _ less _ weird. That would have been about six months ago, and the best place to start telling the story would be around that time anyway.

So, everyone had one sentence in their head, sometimes just a single word, that was a message left for them by what was generally agreed to be a past life. Roxas wasn’t sure the accuracy of the “past life” bit, but he knew the message part had been proven to be an ‘everybody has this’ sort of thing. Usually you got advice, a name, a warning… Things of that nature. And you always knew it was your Past Life Line because it was always weirdly different from the way you usually thought. It was usually very formal, and gods knew nobody ever thought formally unless they were trying to do something boringly academic.

Anyway, everybody had one, and habitually talking about them was pretty normal, especially if you got a weird one, like Roxas had. He didn’t talk about his much. Definitely less than was usual for a 17-year-old. His friends and brothers had gotten even weirder ones, though, so usually the talking went about between them.

So, there were Ventus and Vanitas, his older brothers―they were twins. He’d never heard theirs, and they talked about them so infrequently that even Roxas wondered about it and felt like he might talk about his too much in comparison. They were four years older than him, so he hadn’t seen much of them in recent years and he definitely saw Ventus more often than he saw Vanitas. But that was just always how they were―Ventus was sociable, Vanitas was not. They’d all learned not to take it personally, and Roxas wasn’t dumb enough to think Vanitas hated him just because he wasn’t around much. That was just the way he was, not to mention the fact that he was busy with… Whatever he was doing in school.

Then there was Sora, his younger brother. He’d gotten one that was like, probably the weirdest that Roxas had ever heard until Riku brought his up when they were in middle school. And Sora fretted about it more than he fretted about literally anything else. While his friends and family were reasonably concerned with grades, or jobs, he worried about the Master of Masters and what his Line meant. And otherwise? He was a pretty chill dude―just always concerned under it all.

He could go on for hours, honestly, talking about his friends and their weird Lines. They had long since beaten out everyone else in their little island town for ‘Weirdest Lines’ and clearly they were individuals and he was easily distracted talking about them.

The main point was really just that they sort of bonded over how weird their lines were on top of all the other reasons they already got along. The group included Roxas (though fairly rarely, if he was honest), Sora, Riku, and Kairi, and they’d known each other since they were… Really young.

Kairi had been the last one to join the group, and Roxas could still remember the way that Sora and Riku immediately started fighting over her even though they were, like,  _ five. _ And he could also still remember the way she more or less took his place in the group, though not intentionally, and how temporarily angry he’d been over it before he realized he actually liked just kind of hanging back and letting those three do their thing with only the occasional call for him to join them in their tomfoolery.

Ugh, again, getting sidetracked.

So.

Six months ago.

That was when things started getting  _ really _ weird, since they’d already been pretty weird to begin with as far as Roxas was concerned.

It was a fairly average day, by all accounts, up until the moment that it wasn’t.

_ Between Light and Darkness, there is Nothing. _ His mind chimed as soon as he woke, which was standard fare. It was followed by,  _ Ugh, it’s Monday. _ Then by,  _ Oh, wait, school ended last Tuesday. _

He waited a moment just lying there, staring up at the ceiling, like usual. The sun filtered in through his window and his curtains, half-blinding him the first time he peeked his eyes open and leading to him blindly groping for the pull-cord for his blinds after he shoved his face back under his pillow. Finally grasping the string, he yanked and listened to the satisfying clatter and thud of the blinds falling closed.

Then, from down the hall, he heard a yelp, a thud, and a muffled curse.

So Sora was awake too, huh?

Good. They were supposed to meet the others for breakfast anyway.

Peeking out from under the pillow into a marginally less bright room (his other window’s blinds were cracked open and the blinds only limited some of the light anyway), he blinked until his eyes adjusted completely, then slowly slid out of bed after a long and satisfying stretch. There hadn’t been another sound from Sora’s room yet, which meant he was probably laying on the floor and staring into the darkness under his bed again.

He’d go kick him if he wasn’t up by the time he was finished getting dressed.

For now he spent a moment digging through his drawers for a decent pair of shorts and a shirt. Those found he hesitantly peeked out into the hallway, which was blessedly dark, and sort of half-sprinted across to the bathroom seeing as he was in nothing but boxers and his mom would have a  _ fit _ if she caught him ‘prancing around half-naked’ again. As if he hadn’t literally been going to get ready…

Teeth and hair brushed and clothes pulled on, he scrubbed the last of the drowsiness out of his eyes, paused to pop his neck, and then moved on from the bathroom to go check on his brother.

“Sora~,” He chimed, sing-songy because it would annoy even him this early in the morning, “You up?”

Sora, who was sitting on the floor next to his bed, disheveled and a far cry from his usual cheer (as he would be for the next fifteen to twenty minutes, until he woke up the rest of the way), grunted and gave him a bland look. He didn’t respond verbally, and Roxas hadn’t expected him to. Lord knew  _ Roxas _ wasn’t a morning person, particularly when he didn’t wake up of his own volition.

“Breakfast with Kai and ‘Ku is in thirty minutes.” He advised, watching that dead-eyed annoyance turn into mild panic as Sora shot up off the floor.

He moved out of the way before Sora was even finished snatching up his clothes, slipping back into his own bedroom to finish up while Sora stumbled into the bathroom. He slipped on a couple of wristbands, pulled his phone off the charger, and put on a pair of socks. He was still scrolling through his backlog of notifications when he got to the front door, where he was going to wait for Sora like he usually did when they were supposed to go somewhere together. Their mother wouldn’t be up for another couple of hours, most likely, and she already knew this excursion would be happening, so there was no need for a note or to wake her up.

It was a pretty good arrangement, and it got a lot of questions from other people they knew when it got brought up.

Now, Roxas could pull his shoes on right now and head out, and Sora would eventually show up on his own, but… Well. Roxas was a little protective of his little brother, and his little brother could be  _ kind of _ an idiot. Who knew who he’d managed to piss off on the last day of school last week... And who knew who would be waiting for an opportunity to catch him alone.

Roxas wasn’t going to take any chances.

The whole group knew how to fight, and Sora would never be in any real danger from anyone else on the island, but if he did nothing else typical of an older brother, he was going to be  _ slightly _ overbearing and overprotective.

Just enough to keep him safe without suffocating him.

Reviewing the last of the posts he’d been notified of on his favorite blogging platform, he glanced up just in time to see a slightly more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Sora hopping off the last step on his way down into the front hall.

“You ready?” He asked, definitely more cheery now.

“Shoes.” Roxas shrugged, by way of answer, and after he’d stuffed his phone into his back pocket they both tugged their shoes on without much more conversation.

The walk from the house to the cafe they’d picked when plotting this trip was quiet for the first two minutes, while Sora finished waking up, and then the remaining four minute walk was filled with his chatter. That was standard, and Roxas was half-smiling as he listened to the latest ramble from his younger brother. This time it was about some video game he’d been really interested in lately and was planning to save up the money to buy from his allowance.

… Some kind of open-world RPG fantasy game.

It seemed right up Roxas’ alley just as much as it seemed like something Sora would like, so he could definitely understand Sora’s hype.

“I might pitch in to help,” He admitted, when Sora again brought up saving up for it right as they reached the cafe, “Oh, Kai’s already here.”

Summertime, early-morning Kairi was a sight to behold, as usual―hair still in a pair of short braids just barely touching her shoulders and frizzy, dark circles beneath vibrant blue eyes, and what appeared to be indentions in her cheek and bare arms from her sheets and covers. She smiled as soon as she saw them, waving, and nearly fell out of her chair.

Sora laughed, going to the table immediately and launching into a ramble as soon as he’d finished greeting her.

Roxas made his way over, gave a wave to poor Kairi, who was clearly trying to listen attentively and who only managed a small wave in return before her attention was on Sora once more, and sat down, leaving the final seat open for Riku as usual.

He arrived a minute or so later, hair tied up in a bun and looking even more like he hadn’t slept than Kairi did. For once, it seemed Roxas may be the most awake at one of these meetings, and in the best mood as a result, since even Sora was still pausing to yawn and curse in annoyance.

“Hey, ‘Ku.” He greeted, because Sora and Kairi were still busy.

Riku gave him a suffering look for a moment as he sat down, eventually pulling another face and sort of waving. After a moment of scrubbing at his face, he looked at him again, half-smiled, and said, “Seeing you so awake at this time of morning is giving me whiplash.”

Roxas could only snort.

It took Sora another couple of moments to realize that Riku was even there, at which point he gasped and all but yelled his name.

All present other than him flinched, including the poor barista at the counter.

All three members of the group shushed him, and he had the grace to look sheepish as he said, at a more appropriate volume, “Sorry.”

Roxas would be honest―he didn’t pay a whole lot of attention after that, because the other three settled into their usual routine and he sort of settled into the background as they did so. He didn’t mind. He actually really liked this setup. They did their thing when they were all together, and he got along with all of them so if they weren’t all together he could talk all he wanted, should he decide he wanted to.

They’d all had a coffee and a breakfast pastry by the time the rest of the town actually started getting lively, and by then Kairi and Riku were actually actively participating in the conversation, leaving Roxas the only one silent as he gazed out at the street.

This was the moment things started getting weirder.

Because there was a commotion out on the street, and those were  _ incredibly rare _ on a little island town like this one.

He watched for a moment, squinting, but couldn’t quite catch sight of the source. There had to be  _ something _ going on… And he didn’t consider himself to be particularly nosey, but, well.

This was a small town.

If there was something  _ interesting _ going on, he wanted to know about it.

So he nudged Sora, who cut himself off midway through whatever he was saying to turn to Roxas, then to look out the window when Roxas pointed. He blinked, then squinted.

“What’s going on out there?”

“Dunno, haven’t been able to catch sight of anything from here.”

Sora, Kairi, and Riku all shared a look.

And then, as Roxas expected, all three of them got up to go look. Only Kairi had had the forethought to grab her drink, so with a fondly exasperated sigh Roxas gathered his and the other two’s, tossing their trash into a bin as he followed them out the door. No need to leave a mess.

As soon as they left the door of the cafe, the sound of the commotion reached their ears.

It wasn’t loud―mostly it was a chorus of whispering as the crowd nudged each other and occasionally pointed.

Roxas handed Riku and Sora their drinks, then started slowly weaving his way through the crowd. People his age sort of moved out of the way on instinct, aware after all these years he’d prefer not to be touched and thoughtful enough to actually indulge that preference, and adults let him pass with little more than an ‘excuse me’ from him.

Emerging on the other side of the crowd, he suddenly understood what the commotion was about.

Because when he emerged, he saw three strangers laid out half on top of each other in the middle of the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this chapter, be sure to let me know! You can always hit me up on my [tumblr](fusion-ego.tumblr.com) if you want to yell about this fic or about KH in general, lol


	3. ... magic?

The island that Roxas lived on didn’t get many visitors, and especially not from strangers. People he’d seen before that had long-since moved to the mainland? Sure. People he didn’t know, but the adults did? Yeah, that happened too.

But not total strangers.

The last time he’d seen someone that no one knew on the island, it had been what could be best described as a “wandering trader”. Some seafaring old man who had brought things like spices and other things of that nature that for the most part no one had ever seen before. That had been a year before this, and they hadn’t seen the old man since, nor anyone else that wasn’t familiar.

And the thing was? They’d first seen the old man when he was pulling into port.

It looked like these three strangers had just dropped out of the sky on main street.

There was one with blue hair, one with blonde, and one with bright red―redder than even Kairi’s was. And it was as he was processing this that Sora got to his side, followed closely by Kairi and Riku.

“Who…?” Sora asked, brows wrinkling.

“No clue.” Roxas hummed, then looked around at the crowd. Everyone seemed almost scared to approach. “I can’t believe no one’s checking on them, they could be fucking  _ hurt.” _

And before he really thought better of it, he was stepping past the silently agreed-upon circle of space that the three strangers were getting. He heard a gasp or two behind him and decided, ultimately, to ignore it, approaching the pile of strangers carefully.

The blonde had landed on top of both of the other two, his back laid across the redhead’s torso and legs across the blue haired one’s back, while the redhead had landed with his legs across the blue haired one’s. The redhead was rolled halfway onto his side, the blue haired one was flat on his chest with his head turned toward the redhead and his hair in his face, and the blonde one was the only one facing upwards.

Roxas knelt, reaching out a hesitant hand to nudge his shoulder after he sat his coffee aside.

His eyes flew open, and he jerked, then gasped in pain and squeezed his eyes shut once more. “Ow, ow, fuck… Fuck, where…?” He peeked an eye open, catching sight of Roxas and almost jerking again.

“Uh… Hi?” Roxas furrowed his brows, “Do you need help?”

“I―” The blonde blinked at him, blue-green eyes and whole face unsure, “I think I might, actually.”

“Okay.” He took a breath, bracing himself for the weird tingly feeling of touching a stranger, and helped the blonde up off of the other two, who both groaned at each movement. Steadying him on his feet, he watched him sort of hunch, clutching at his stomach. “Okay, so that’s probably ribs,” He found himself muttering, “Who knows what else… And then there’s those two.” He shook his head, “What’s your name, stranger?”

“... Demyx,” The blonde finally admitted, throwing concerned glances down at the other two, “Uh, those two are my friends, Saïx and Axel.”

“Demyx,” Roxas repeated, committing it to his memory. He offered a hand, “Roxas.”

Demyx shook his hand, sort of smiling, then flinching as he took his hand back. His eyes flicked over Roxas’ shoulder, and when Roxas glanced in that direction he saw Kairi approaching, free hand in her bag.

When she got to Roxas’ side, she withdrew her hand from her bag to offer Demyx a Hi-Potion, which he regarded with some surprise for a second before hesitantly taking from her.

“I’m Kairi,” She greeted calmly, “And you look like you could use that.”

Demyx grinned sheepishly, but drank the potion and winced a little, probably at the taste, before perking up considerably. “Thank you,” He sighed, “I’m, uh― I’m Demyx.”

“Nice meeting you.” She replied, “And it’s no problem.”

With Demyx and Kairi starting up a conversation, Roxas returned to his prior kneeling position to nudge the redhead, who groaned in response.

“Can you move at all?” He asked, watching the guy’s face.

The guy winced, and after a moment he grunted, “Give me a hot second.”

So Roxas sat back and waited as he slowly removed his legs from the blue haired guy, maneuvering himself into a sitting position. He didn’t really look any worse for wear, but it was hard telling how injured he really was just from this. Roxas knew he had a bad habit, personally, of moving and walking around and acting like he was fine when he was injured and gods knew he couldn’t be the only person in the universe who did that.

“You gonna need a potion?” He asked, lifting a brow.

The redhead grunted, blinking a few times before actually looking at him. Oh, wow, those were some  _ green _ eyes. Whoa.

Okay, Roxas,  _ focus. _

“... I don’t think so?” The guy finally said, after sort of staring at him for a moment, “I’m more sore than anything. Should be fine but, uh…  _ Where am I?” _

“Oh, the Destiny Islands,” Roxas replied, trying to sound nonchalant.

It was funny―the island didn’t really have a name, and neither did the others nearby that were still technically ‘part’ of the island. Not a name that anyone knew  _ now _ at least. The Old Name had been forgotten a long time ago.  _ But _ non-Islanders usually jokingly called the place Destiny Islands, and some of the locals had taken it in stride and jokingly started making merchandise to sell to the visitors they got, when strangers came through. And that was generally what the Islands got called anyway nowadays.

Still, there didn’t seem to be any recognition of the name in the redhead’s eyes.

“I… Do not know where that is,” He finally admitted, “But Sai might when he finally gets up.”

So this was Axel, then? A fitting name.

“That would make you Axel, then, I guess.” Roxas said, just to be sure, offering a hand, “I’m Roxas, that’s Kairi.”

“Yep, that’s me.” He took his hand, shaking it, “You happen to have any idea how we got into this position?”

“Not a clue. I just noticed a commotion and by the time I got here you three were already dog-piled.”

Axel frowned, not seeming to like that revelation.

Somewhere off behind Roxas, he heard a voice he recognized―Tidus, someone he went to school with, one of Sora’s more casual friends―chime in, “They just kinda fell outta thin air, man.”

Axel’s face turned more troubled, and when Roxas glanced over, Demyx seemed to be feeling just as bothered by that information. Roxas frowned a little as well, about to move to nudge the blue-haired one, Saïx, when he grunted and shifted all on his own, rolling slowly off of his stomach even as he sat up.

“Out of thin air?” He asked, sounding bored and unimpressed even as he blinked and paused to shake his head, pushing his hair out of his face. He turned his eyes, which were  _ burning gold _ and  _ terrifying, by the way, _ to Roxas and raised one brow, which was a surprisingly scary expression when it was coming from a guy with two scars across the bridge of his nose, “And you said we’re on the Destiny Islands?”

Roxas hummed his agreement, nodding.

Okay, so this group… Didn’t know how they’d gotten here. There was a blonde, blue-green-eyed one who seemed fairly nice, if a little naive and fragile, a redhead with  _ really pretty green eyes _ who Roxas didn’t know enough about to try and classify, and a blue-haired, golden-eyed one with two bigass face scars and an air about him that told Roxas he probably shouldn’t fuck with him. Not that he planned to, of course, but the feeling definitely kept him from considering it too deeply.

Those gold eyes squinted at him, but then he hummed, getting to his feet and rolling his shoulders with a  _ crack _ that had Roxas wincing a little. He didn’t even seem like he was  _ sore. _

“I suppose that’s fitting.” Saïx finally said, “That we ended up on these islands, I mean. This seems to be the main town, if I’m not mistaken. A better place to have landed than what could have been.”

“Yeah.” Axel agreed, almost sounding annoyed, starting to get to his feet but pausing when Roxas got up and swiftly offered a hand to help. He seemed a little taken aback, but smiled a tad as he took the hand and let Roxas help him up before he continued, “We could have landed in the middle of the ocean, and then where would we be?”

“Well, water’s kind of my thing,” Demyx chimed, but when the other two gave him unimpressed looks he shrank a little, “I’m just saying, I would have at least woken up and maybe have been able to keep us afloat in that case. It still would have sucked.”

Roxas chose not to question that, moving to pick up his almost-forgotten coffee as he turned to Kairi. She looked about as lost as he felt, which was a small relief.

“I think we may need to postpone this discussion until we’ve procured a more private place.” Saïx said, somewhat flatly, giving Demyx a very pointed look and making him turn very red. Then, turning to Roxas and Kairi, he regarded them for a moment before saying, “Thank you very much for your assistance. I don’t suppose you know of a place we could rest and attempt to gather ourselves?”

Roxas looked to Kairi, who returned the look.

Finally, sighing because he knew Kairi didn’t have anything to offer on those grounds, as she lived alone with her grandmother in a two bedroom house, Roxas took a swig of his coffee and said, “We’ve got three spare rooms at my place, if you’re willing to stay in them.”

Kairi bit her lip, “But won’t Ven and Van―”

“They don’t even live in the house anymore, Kai.” He sighed again, “And what they don’t know won’t hurt them.”

She hummed, and he saw the three strangers share a look with raised brows.

Finally, it was Saïx who said, “If it’s not any trouble.”

“It’s not.” Roxas waved a hand, “I can take y’all back there right now if you want?”

“Sure,” Axel agreed, after sharing another look with the other two.

“Cool.” He glanced to Kairi, “You guys do your thing. Don’t worry about me.”

She looked as if she might argue, but ultimately she nodded and headed back over to a bewildered Sora and Riku. Only once both of them had seemingly also agreed with the plan did Roxas turn away, and motion for the three strangers to follow him. The crowd parted immediately, which was nice of them, and Roxas was able to lead the other three through with no issues. There was some whispering, sure, but that was pretty much standard fare.

It was a rather quiet walk, almost tense, and Roxas probably would have done a better job ignoring the tense bit if it had been anyone but these three strangers. He knew it was likely only tense  _ because _ they were strangers, and they were following him to what he was  _ saying _ was his house but may very well not be. He couldn’t blame them if they were a little suspicious.

Still, with a roll of his shoulders he tried to put it out of his mind.

No need to think too hard about it.

Arriving back at the house, he grimaced. He’d caught his mom right as she was leaving for work.

“New friends?” She asked, in that  _ way _ that mothers asked things.

“Something like that. They need a place to stay for a little bit. Okay if I lend them the spare rooms?”

He knew she would have heard about the commotion by now―she had her phone in her hand and there was no way that none of her friends had texted her about the three strange teenagers who fell out of the sky on main street. It was pretty likely that the only reason she’d asked if they were his friends was out of hope that he’d finally gotten a friend group of his own instead of tagging along with Sora everywhere and always looking as if he was being ignored.

She didn’t quite understand the relationship balance.

Whatever, not the point.

She squinted a moment, then glanced back at her phone. “Yes, that’s fine.” Glancing back up, she looked at them and Roxas felt a little bad they were being subjected to the Mom Face so early on in knowing her, “Just clean up your messes and try not to make too much noise at night.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Said Axel and Demyx, almost reflexively.

“We’ll do our best, ma’am. Thank you for your hospitality.” Said Saïx.

Looking a little charmed by the politeness, she smiled. “Of course. Now, I’ve got to be off to work―Roxas, you may want to be the one to move Vani’s stuff around to make room. He won’t be nearly as angry if it’s you.”

“Will do. Have a good day at work, mom.”

She snorted, and that was the last thing she did before she was off down the sidewalk.

“... Your mother is an intimidating woman.” Saïx said, as Roxas led them into the house.

“She has four sons,” Roxas snorted in reply, “That’ll do that to a person.”

He stepped out of his shoes at the door, and watched the other three scramble to follow his direction. Then, he quietly directed them to the living room.

“Mom had a point about moving Van’s shit.” He shrugged, when they all sort of furrowed their brows, “So just gimme a hot minute and then y’all can figure out where you’re sleeping.”

Almost as soon as he’d left the room, he heard them start to speak. Pausing on the stairs, he listened with his ear against the wall.

_ “You’re sure we can trust him?” _ That was Axel, sounding somewhat worried.

_ “You can set fires with your brain, dude.” _ That was Demyx,  _ “Why are you worried about some blonde kid who’s done literally nothing except help us out and drink his coffee? Even if he tries something…” _

Roxas grit his teeth. Forced himself to continue up the stairs.

He did  _ not _ want to know where that was going. The idea that Axel could set fires with his mind was unsettling, if only because Roxas suddenly became  _ very _ aware of how flammable everything around him was. It was really starting to sound like  _ no one _ in that group should be trifled with, honestly. Next he was going to find out that Saïx could do something even more scary…

Gods.

Magic wasn’t  _ totally _ unbelievable―enough weird shit happened in the world that magic was a reasonable explanation for some of it, and he’d never even want to imply that magic wasn’t real considering Sora’s aggressive belief in it. It would just make sense, in some cases, and he was pretty sure “setting fires with your mind” was some kind of magic, and regrettably one of the kinds that was  _ probably real. _

Not to mention, it wasn’t as if they’d thought he could hear them, right? Why would they try to fake him out when they didn’t even know he was listening?

He was paranoid, but not  _ that _ paranoid.

He nudged the door to Vanitas’ old room open, chewing on the inside of his cheek, and jerked a little at the sudden nostalgia and the surprisingly strong and well-preserved scent of the cologne he’d started wearing in high school. He didn’t go into Van’s room often, especially when he was younger, but the few times that he had were good memories.

All four of them laying on the floor, wrapped up in all the blankets from their beds, playing video games together when Vanitas was in a good enough mood, having falling asleep against his big brother’s side when he’d had his first finals season and got so little sleep the night before the test that he was about to fall out even standing up… Things of that nature. Van was a pretty private and fairly antisocial dude, but he was a  _ good _ dude. He was there when it really mattered, you know?

Roxas shook the memories off, but couldn’t shake the smile as he gathered up the stuff he  _ knew _ Van wouldn’t have wanted anyone to touch and had only left behind when he went to mainland for college because he didn’t have the room. He could set it all in his own room for the time being―Van might be a little cranky if he ever found out, but ultimately he’d understand why there’d been a need.

Again, private and antisocial, but  _ good. _

No matter how cranky he was, he wouldn’t even for a moment imply that his room shouldn’t have been used by someone who needed it more than he did considering he  _ didn’t even live in the house anymore. _

With the really important things out of the way, he did a quick sweep of the room for anything else Van might have left behind that he wouldn’t want anyone to get ahold of.

Aside from an extremely dusty journal sitting on his dresser, there wasn’t anything.

Still, Roxas figured it’d be a better idea to move the journal than to leave it there to be read by whoever used this room… And he couldn’t help peeking into it. He was 17, for Pete’s sake―curiosity was a killer for him.

… Although he didn’t imagine that was going to change when he turned 18 the next month, really.

Peeking in, he expected to see “Property of Vanitas” scribbled across the inside cover. He expected to see journal entries.

What he saw, instead, was a very delicately printed, “Book of Shadows of Vanitas”. And it was definitely Vanitas’ handwriting, if a far more careful form of it than was usual. He furrowed his brows and flipped to the next page, finding a page full of equally careful and delicate handwriting, detailing what seemed to be a ritual.

See? Magic was probably real―all the more reason to  _ not piss off the three weird strangers who seemed to have some of their own. _

He shut the journal and shook his head. Best not to dwell―he might give himself a headache. Gods knew he didn’t need that right now. But still… Of all the things to find in Van’s room.

He shook his head again, retreating back to his own room and laying the journal on his bedside table before fishing his phone out of his pocket. May as well just… Text Van. Better to tell him outright than have him find out later.

So he opened up their messages.

_ -Two Weeks Ago- _

_ [Vani]: dork _

_ pretty sure YOU’RE the dork, actually _

_ [Vani]: pfff, as if. _

_ just finish out the semester, shithead _

_ you’ll be done in no time _

_ yeah, yeah _

_ doesn’t mean i can’t hate it the whole time _

_ [Vani]: ‘course it doesn’t _

_ finish it out of spite _

_ that’s what i did and look at me now _

_ almost got a wholeass bachelor _

_ tryharddddddd _

_ [Vani]: fuck off ya little brat _

_ :p _

_ love you _

_ [Vani]: love you too _

_ shithead _

_ -No New Messages- _

He smiled again, then sighed. This was going to go over  _ so _ well...

_ -Today- _

_ hey vani _

_ you left your weird creepy journal in your room _

_ also is there anything else you don’t want anybody else to see? _

_ or touch? _

_ we need to lend your room to somebody so i’m trying to _

_ like _

_ move the important shit _

He shoved his phone back in his pocket for the moment, moving to Ventus’ room to check it over―Ven wasn’t as private as Van was, but Roxas could think of a couple of things he’d probably prefer weren’t left in his room when a stranger was staying there.

He’d barely grabbed the old Wayfinder charm out of Ven’s bedside table drawer before his phone vibrated in his pocket. He winced. He wanted to ignore it, but if it was Van it was best to just face it head on. It vibrated again while he was reaching for it. Then again. And once more.

_ [Vani]: first off _

_ why the fuck are you letting someone stay in my room _

_ second _

_ other than the shit you already know about? Wayfinder. _

_ helped a couple mainlanders out this mornin _

_ they need someplace to stay until they can go back where they came from _

_ and k _

_ i’ll grab it _

_ gonna put it with your creepy journal and ven’s Wayfinder _

_ [Vani]: and i thought ven and sor were the good samaritans of the fam _

_ but w/e _

_ good on you for being a decent person _

_ and good, that works for me _

_ knew i had to have forgotten something last time _

_ honestly cant believe you and ven left your Wayfinders _

_ [Vani]: yeah i’m a lil weirded out tbh _

_ ik i left mine so it wouldn’t get fuckin BROKE _

_ but ven usually takes his everywhere _

_ yeah :/ _

_ say hi to him for me? _

_ [Vani]: you could, idk, text him? _

_ brat _

_ :p _

_ -No New Messages- _

That… Went over surprisingly well.

Like, way better than he’d expected. That was good.

Okay, he’d wasted enough time. So, after gathering up the things he knew Ven would like to keep private, he circled back to Van’s room to dust off the dresser and bedside table, then fish around in his bedside table until he found his Wayfinder. That done, he took it to his room to stow it where he’d promised he would.

That should be good enough. The guest room was already in fine condition and he’d dusted off Ven’s shit while he was in there, so… Cool. Back downstairs to talk to the weird magic trio.

It was starting to set in for him how  _ weird _ this was.

Best not to dwell, though. He shook it off.

He paused near the bottom of the stairs, and, hearing nothing but some shuffling, sighed in relief that they weren’t talking about anything. He finished descending and peeked into the living room.

“‘Kay, now that  _ that’s _ done,” He said, and all three of them jumped a little, “Like I said, there’s three rooms available―my older brothers’ rooms and the spare bedroom. Doesn’t make any difference to  _ me _ where y’all sleep, so it’s up to you.” He paused, letting them sor to nod, then wincing and adding, “Although Ven’s old room is right up against Sora’s, so if you’re noise sensitive at all I’d suggest not picking that one.”

“... You have another sibling?” It was Demyx who asked, brows furrowed.

“Yeah, I―” Roxas paused, “Oh, you didn’t, uh… You guys didn’t get to meet him earlier, huh? He’s… Something else.” He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. He was so used to people already knowing Sora, he… Wow. “That said, I don’t want to start anything, but you best be nice to him. I will throw down for him and no amount of you falling out of the sky on main street will deter me.”

The three of them blinked at him. Then, after a moment they all sort of nodded.

It was silent until they all got up from where they’d taken seats.

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Saïx said, “Thank you again for your hospitality―would you mind showing us the rooms?”

“Not at all, c’mon.”

He led them upstairs and pointed to the first door on the left, “That one’s mom’s. Next one’s the spare, last one’s Sora’s.” He pointed to the door on the right, “This one’s Ven’s, next one’s Van’s, last one’s mine. Again, just be mindful of noise from Sora’s room if you take the spare.”

He mostly ignored them as he headed down the hall to his own room, intent on just sort of giving the illusion they had some privacy. He stuck by his door, listening as they quietly discussed their options. Finally, he heard Demyx offer to take the spare, since noise didn’t bother him and he’d probably be listening to music anyone if his phone had survived.

“That works, I suppose.” Saïx hummed, “I suppose that leaves us to choose.”

“Guess so.” Axel sighed, and Roxas could almost  _ feel _ him rubbing the back of his neck―like, his tone just brought the mental image of that being what he was doing. “I mean, this one seems better for you, Sai. Nobody at all on one side and me on the other?”

“I suppose if you’re willing to be on the other side of the wall from the boy you’re so concerned will be a potential issue…” Saïx trailed in a very purposeful way.

“Listen,” Axel said, stressing the word, “If  _ you’re _ not gonna be the paranoid one this time―”

“Maybe none of us need to be the paranoid one this time?” Demyx cut him off to suggest, “I mean― Sai, what do you know about this place? What’s it like?”

“Generally a very quiet sort of place. Not much else to say―the locals all more or less know how to defend themselves, but I’ve never heard a report of any real violence here. The likelihood of anyone here turning out to be a  _ real _ threat is incredibly low.”

“So, basically what I was saying earlier?” Demyx asked, “If he turns out to be a problem―if  _ any of them _ turn out to be a problem―, Axel can flambé them and that’d pretty much be the end of it?”

“More or less. Though I don’t doubt the rest of the island’s population wouldn’t take kindly to that, so I don’t suggest it.”

Axel heaved a sigh, but after a moment he said, “Yeah, yeah, good point. Fine. Yeah, he’s probably not an issue and I should stop being paranoid. Gotcha.” Another silence, followed by an even heavier sigh, “Yes, I’m taking that room.”

“Great.” Saïx said.

It was silent again, and Roxas chose to step away from the door to check his phone, unsettled to a high degree by the casual discussion of him being a  _ problem. _ As if he was going to hurt them. As if he’d brought them here  _ to hurt them. _

He didn’t blame them for the paranoia―or, rather, he didn’t blame  _ Axel _ for the paranoia―, but it still rankled something fierce. He’d done nothing but offer them help and… Ugh. Moving off that topic before he actually got angry.

Being suspicious of strangers was fair, and given their interactions when they thought he wasn’t listening? It was fair to assume he ought to be a little more suspicious of them than he had been thus far. That was fine. He could do that.

He was scrolling aimlessly through the dashboard of his blogging site when a hesitant knock came to his doorframe.

“Uh, Roxas?”

Ah, it was Demyx.

He turned toward him, lifting a brow. “Yeah?”

“We got it figured out,” He informed him, almost hesitantly, “Also, uh― We’re not, like, keeping you from your friends or anything, right? By being here?”

Technically speaking? Yes, yes they were. But it wasn’t as if he was really going to be involved anyway, and he’d done what he’d agreed to doing―he’d had breakfast with them. That was all he’d signed up for.

So he gave a half-smile to the blonde and said, “Nope. I was just there for breakfast.”

Demyx seemed to relax.

“You may as well get settled in. I can make lunch here in a couple hours, but I’d bet you guys all need a while to start getting over the aches.”

“Oh, right.” Demyx smiled, “Thanks, uh… Thanks.”

And he retreated from the doorway, presumably to go to the spare room.

And Roxas thought to himself that maybe, just maybe, he’d better not press for any answers from any of them. Was he curious about who they were and what they were doing and how they got here? Absolutely. But the potential backlash for digging too deep…

Curse him and his curiosity, and while he was at it? Curse his will do try and do the right thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter ended up a lot longer than i intended it to, but i just couldn't find a good place to cut it off lol
> 
> anyways, gearing up to move into the Actual Story soon, probably within the next couple of chapters - i'm just a sucker for exposition


End file.
